Chris Mannix explains why, as great as Jaylen Brown is, if the Celtics can land Kevin Durant in a trade for their All-Star guard, they have to “jump on it”.
We didn't have any July 4 fireworks in the Kevin Durant trade sweepstakes, but the Brooklyn Nets are continuing to build the frame of the type of package it will take for any one of the other 29 teams to acquire the superstar forward.
Durant reportedly requested a trade last week. The four-year, $194 million contract extension he signed last August begins this upcoming season, so the two-time NBA champion doesn't have a ton of leverage in choosing where he winds up.
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What's the latest on Durant's future and what the Nets want in return?
"I think the Nets are trying to create an outline for the rest of the league about the kind of package they would want back in a Kevin Durant trade. I think the Rudy Gobert trade to Minnesota started to frame that," ESPN insider Adrian Wojnarowski said Sunday on "SportsCenter".
"Essentially five first-round picks for Gobert. I think for Brooklyn, that level of picks and pick swaps, and then an All-Star level player. Those deals are difficult to put together. Teams that would like to be really aggressive with Brooklyn because they know Kevin Durant has great interest in playing for them -- Phoenix and Miami -- they don't really have the ability to do one-on-one deals with Brooklyn. They need to bring more teams into it.
"So I think the market is still taking shape. I think it's incumbent on some of the other teams to be creative and start bringing to Brooklyn ideas, going out and seeing if they can get players and picks that would put the kind of package together it would take to get Kevin Durant."
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Durant averaged 29.9 points, 7.4 rebounds and 6.4 assists per game last season. He also shot 38.3 percent from 3-point range and 91 percent from the free throw line.
When healthy, Durant is arguably the league's best player. But, due to injuries, he's played in just 90 of the Nets' regular season games since he signed with them during the summer of 2019. Durant also is 34 years old, so there is plenty of risk in acquiring him.
But for any team that believes they are a Durant-like player away from winning a championship in the short term, it might be worth mortgaging immense draft capital and a promising young player to acquire the Nets star and go for the Larry O'Brien Trophy in 2023.